How wasted spend is counted
The rules behind the wasted spend figure on Google Ads, Meta Ads and Amazon PPC, what each one counts, and when it can overstate the problem.
Google Ads
The Waste Calculator adds together five amounts:
- Spend on campaigns with no conversions.
- Search terms with more than 5 clicks and more than 10 in spend (in your account's currency) that didn't convert.
- Half the spend on keywords with a Quality Score of 5 or less.
- 30% of mobile spend, when mobile has spent more than 100 and under 1% of mobile clicks convert.
- Spend from 1:00am to 5:59am (account time) in the hours that brought no conversions.
The amounts overlap (a campaign with no conversions also has search terms with none), so the total is capped at 80% of spend. We estimate that 70% of it can be recovered.
The Wasted Spend section in the Deep Dive counts more narrowly: campaigns with no conversions, search terms that spent more than 5 without converting, and 40% of mobile spend when mobile converts at under 30% of the desktop rate. Its score falls by 2 points for every percent of spend it counts as wasted.
Meta Ads
Coming soon. Meta Ads audits open once Meta approves AuditRoger's app. This is how their waste will be counted.
A campaign that spent $50 or more with no conversions is flagged, and so is the account as a whole. Below $50, no conversions usually means the campaign has barely run.
Amazon PPC
A search counts as wasted when it has no orders after enough clicks that you'd expect two (at least 8), and it has cost more than your average cost per order.
When the figure overstates it
- Conversion tracking is missing or broken. With nothing being counted, everything looks wasted. Fix tracking first; the audit checks it.
- Campaigns aren't meant to convert. Brand awareness and video campaigns have other goals.
- Sales happen offline or later. Phone calls and long sales cycles that aren't imported as conversions look like waste.